Magnetic sensitive force microscopy

High-resolution magnetic imaging down to the atomic scale is of utmost importance to understand magnetism on the nanoscale and below. Here we report on recent advances in force microscopy based techniques from our laboratory, namely magnetic force microscopy and magnetic exchange force microscopy. The former is a well established technique for studying ferromagnetic domain patterns by sensing the long-range magnetostatic tip-sample interaction relatively far above the surface. In contrast, the latter is a novel and promising tool capable of detecting spin configurations with atomic resolution by probing the short-range magnetic exchange interaction at very small tip-sample distances. Data acquisition schemes and tip preparation methods are evaluated on sample systems to illustrate and compare sensitivity and spatial resolution of both methods.